


A Slippery Slope

by Anonim_Girl05



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Bad Parenting, Boss/Employee Relationship, Drinking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Infidelity, F/M, Nathalie Sancoeur-centric, POV Nathalie Sancoeur, Pre-Relationship, Skiing Trip, Unhealty realtionships, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonim_Girl05/pseuds/Anonim_Girl05
Summary: He was always close to her, as if she was the most important person in his world.However, she knew perfectly well that she was not…
Relationships: Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Kudos: 37





	A Slippery Slope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karuvapatta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karuvapatta/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Slippery Slope](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16614686) by [karuvapatta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karuvapatta/pseuds/karuvapatta). 
  * A translation of [Un Pendio Scivoloso](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546076) by [Anonim_Girl05](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonim_Girl05/pseuds/Anonim_Girl05). 



> Hello everyone! This is my newest work.
> 
> It is a sort of personal re-adaptation / version of the mythical fanfic "A Slippery Slope" by Karuvapatta, a fantastic Fanwriter.  
> I don't know if anyone knows or remembers it… It dates back to two years ago now.
> 
> I decided to do this as a tribute to the writer and at the same time to bring this fic back to light, but this time with a different rating, more accessible to all those who perhaps -as me- feel discouraged in reading higher ratings (for example, the original is a M-rated fanfiction).
> 
> As a structure I have kept to the original, but sometimes I have made some changes.
> 
> Karu, I hope you don't find this an irritating gesture...  
> I tried to alert you via Tumblr (as anonymous, since I don't have an account, but telling you i was me) to tell you this, but I didn't get any response… Maybe didn't you receive it?  
> In any case, I hope you like it. ❣️
> 
> Ah, I warn you. I don't have any Beta readers, so my writing won't be flawless.

His name was Jacques.  
His broad smile and hoarse voice, as well as the way he gesticulated with his left hand, were truly fascinating in Nathalie's eyes, something hypnotic…  
She felt as if she was attracted to that voice, low and sweet.

Nathalie drank her drink and smiled at the man across the counter, who continued uninterrupted with his monologue.  
The words slipped over her, she did not listen to them fully.  
They were like a sweet background to her confused thoughts.

"Have you been here long?"  
Jacques asked, realizing that he had talked for about seven minutes straight without ever actually involving her.

"A week," Nathalie said casually.

"Holiday?"

"I work, actually," a smile flared across her face at the sight of the bartender's confusion.  
"I don't mind the change of scenery, though."

The hotel bar offered a breathtaking view of the mountains, whose peaks were dusted with a veil of white snow, radiated by the illuminated slopes that entertained the night skiers.  
Even so, the sky was dotted with stars, without the haze produced by the light pollution she saw daily in Paris.  
Nathalie liked the view.  
She liked the air, clear and crisp.  
She also liked her drink, which warmed her from the inside,  
ambient music, which gave the atmosphere a relaxing aura,  
and the way this man looked at her over the edge of the glass. 

It was then that Mr. Agreste entered.  
The arrival woke her up from that torpor.

"Good evening, sir," Nathalie said automatically.  
Jacques turned and gasped at the sight of the man.

"Madam? Are you like his lover...?"  
He asked softly, but not enough not to be heard by Gabriel,  
who looked at him with his coldest and most disdainful expression, it seemed that the bartender's cheeky words had somehow turned out to be… Offensive.  
She couldn't blame him.

Nathalie let out a sigh.  
"No. He's my boss."

Jacques still had his suspicions.  
And Gabriel, taking the place next to her, done the opposite of dissipating them.

"Good evening," he said in a cold tone.

He ordered a glass of bourbon and he sat sipping it, glancing sideways at Jacques until he took the hint and walked away quickly.  
No one could make someone feel as unwelcome as that man.

Nathalie covered her irritation with more alcohol.

"Is there anything you need, sir?" she asked pleasantly. The mulled wine loosened her tongue, as she would never have taken that informal tone with him under other circumstances.  
"You gave me the evening off."

"It's not about work," Agreste said.

She could almost believe him. The trip itself wasn't about work.  
It had been an impressive effort to make sure that there was some time between father and son in which they could bond away from the sad home.  
And as he isolated himself in his room for a few hours to work on his projects, Mr. Agreste really made an effort to spend time with Adrien, much to the boy's delight.  
However, Nathalie was the one who had to try to follow Adrien in the ski course, which is why Gabriel had accepted the "vacation" in the first place, to teach his son to ski, which by the way he didn't make the commitment to do it, leaving all the work to Nathalie, which was not possible on her part; then she let him drag her into snowboarding lessons, which she hoped would make his father think, but did the opposite, as she was still the person doing it; then she promised to join him on the skating rink the following day, even though by this point she was all bruised and in pain.  
But the boy was happy, and if Nathalie had any weakness it was an Agreste who smiled at her, who showed her gratitude for what she was doing... For them.

"I thought you were spending the evening with Adrien," she said in mock astonishment.

"He was about to call his friend, Miss Dupain-Cheng",  
Agreste replied.  
"I thought he wanted some privacy."

Nathalie smiled to herself.  
It was a shame that Mr. Agreste had not accepted that some of Adrien's friends would join them, but he was like that when it came to socializing.

The wine was finished and she wanted to drink another glass, this seemed the best solution to remove the stress caused by the so-called holiday...  
But if she continued in this way, the next day she risked having to face the whole day -already tiring- with a stinging headache.  
However, she did not usually have free time in a luxury hotel with such a splendid view, even if that time was spent in the company of her boss, a person she hoped to forget -at least- during the evening.

Mr. Agreste pursed his lips and frowned.  
Following his gaze, Nathalie noticed that Jacques had not yet left the bar and from time to time it was still an electrifying thought to cast glances in his direction, if she had to be honest.

"That man," said Mr. Agreste in a disapproving voice.  
"He has... unpleasant intentions. If I was you I wouldn't trust him so much."

Nathalie let out a tired sigh.  
Mr. Agreste wore his Miraculous under the strategic cover of his shirt and was unable to deactivate his empathy powers even when he wasn't looking for a target to akumize.

To be honest, Jacques didn't seem to have who knows what in mind… He just wanted to be nice and he really served her very well.

She realized all this nonsense and pushed the empty glass away.  
She had had enough, besides she drunk too much.  
The idea of the vacation was terrible from the start… Why had she thought it could bring positive feedback with it?  
She was stupid.

She loved her job (and her boss) perhaps to an unhealthy, extreme degree.  
It was one thing to work long hours on a fashion show or a new winter collection, but it was quite another to act as a mother to his boss's son or to risk her life like Mayura to try to catch the Miraculous and get his wife back.  
She had made the amateur mistake of getting engaged emotionally, of feeling that deep love that would lead her to suicide just to make him happy again and now she had no one to blame but herself.

Emotions, Nathalie thought.  
What were they for?

"I... I beg your pardon," Mr. Agreste said with evident effort, but with a barely visible thread of regret imbued in his voice.  
"For ruining your evening."

He didn't seem to apologize.  
Perhaps he sensed something in Jacques, an affinity for evil; Nathalie no, but she wasn't the best judge of character in the world.  
Also, there was something pleasant about Mr. Agreste's company after so many years: a silent and mutual understanding that feelings were superfluous and hindered actual work.

"It doesn't matter," Nathalie said, and found she really meant it.  
"I should go to sleep, anyway."

Mr. Agreste got up and followed her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. At this point, Nathalie felt first a pang of irritation, then something else, feeling her cheeks burn and turn a light shade of red.

She felt discomfort... He worried too much about her since she was sick from the damaged Miraculous, but even now that she was no longer having serious problems -if not some rare cough- he was always close to her, as if she was the person more important than his world.  
However, she knew perfectly well that she was not, otherwise their actions would not be explained in any way.

In the depths of her soul, a small irrational part emerged... She felt pride and felt flattered by the man's concern, but the feeling prevailed that she felt too much, like a burden, a replacement, as if she was taking advantage of his worries to pass the time with him not quite in the traditional way boss and employee spend their days.

She also found it embarrassing.

All those people sitting at their tables, who knows what they thought of them, who knows what they thought of her.  
It didn't matter, she already knew the rumors about her,  
she just ignored them.  
She knew perfectly well that it was only nonsense born from the mouth of fools.

Her room was in a different part of the hotel from the luxury suite she had booked for the man and his son.  
With each step, the awareness grew that Mr. Agreste apparently intended to accompany her to the door.

"Sir?" She asked, pausing with the key card next to the lock.

The man's eyes snapped to her, then to the large wrought iron "112" on the door of the room and then back to Nathalie.  
Feeling uncomfortable, he cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry. I'm used to-"

He was used to following her. Nathalie sighed.

"Your room is upstairs, sir."

There was a strange quality in his gaze: a softness in his blue-gray eyes that she didn't know how to interpret.  
Sometimes he had looked at her that way, even if it was only when she was overcome by inhuman coughs, but he looked at her like that only out of concern... Nothing more.  
But in that moment it was different...

She didn't care.  
She loved her walls and it was easier to pretend they were there to mask her feelings when Mr. Agreste was not focused solely on her, and above all, when she hadn't been drinking.  
If he looked too closely he could see too much, despite Gabriel having sworn never to use the Miraculous in order to spy on her or Adrien, but she knew that if she couldn't control herself, he wouldn't need a Miraculous, since she felt emotions swirl inside her like a mighty hurricane.

"It really fits you very well, you know?" Said Mr. Agreste softly, stroking the characteristic red lock in her hair.  
He had touched them as he had never done in public.  
They made her look a little less professional, but they nicely framed her face creating a delicate contrast… Red and black.

Nathalie's throat dried.  
Mr. Agreste's hand was dangerously close to touching her, his palm radiating a pleasant human warmth as he moved a few hairs behind her ear.

"Sir."

Talking had been a mistake.  
He must have heard the instability in her voice, her hoarseness.

"Nathalie," he replied.

It was unfair the way her name rolled off his tongue.  
She found herself instinctively sliding the key card and backing into the room, for fear of doing something stupid like kissing him in the middle of the hotel corridor, since her thoughts weren't particularly lucid.

He followed her and took her face in his hands.  
She felt light, everything seemed to take on a dreamlike haze...  
Alcohol and passion were a dangerous mixture and now that evening nothing mattered, nothing made sense.

'Stupid' was Nathalie's last clear thought; she felt like a real fool.  
Then she kissed him, focused only on the warmth of his touch, the soft pressure of his lips against hers.  
She couldn't hold back a shiver once he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer, impossibly close.

But Nathalie continued to feel like an idiot, the stupidest woman in France.  
As a simple replacement, a tool used by Gabriel to vent his sadness.  
She felt bad to enjoy such a moment… It wasn't true. He didn't love her.

She decided to dodge him herself.  
She felt immense shame for what had happened, how could something like this have happened?

"Sir, I'm- I'm so sorry! I don't know how it could have happened, but I promise you it won't happen again."  
The mortification was evident in her voice.

Mr. Agreste only looked her in the eye intensely.  
Embarrassed she could not maintain steady eye contact, but when he raised her chin with his index finger, she was forced to look at him.

"Nathalie... It doesn't matter."  
He said in a sweet, loving voice.  
Before pulling her in a new kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I hope you enjoyed it… ~♡  
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Please leave a comment, it is very important to me, it can motivate me and help me improve.  
> I also accept constructive criticism, as long as it is said in a polite tone.
> 
> And Karu, I hope you enjoyed the gift! ♥️️ :)


End file.
